Plus One, Minus Two
by Lron
Summary: After a rather desperate attempt to save his life by Jiraiya and Tsunade, Naruto finds himself in an alternate dimension knocked nine years back that's not all that different...Except one. Single. Tiny. Detail. Gender-bender!


I've always wanted to write a gender-bender, so I thought, 'Why not make my first fic one?' Just so you know POmT will be slow going reading and chapter wise since it's going to follow cannon pretty thoroughly (except for all the problems and changes that Girl!Naruto will bring, of course). I rather be specific than give you a regurgitated summary that will make you lose even more interest.

This is inspired from infractus' "The Sun and the moon", sneaky 'borrowing' from "One Small Change" by reighost, and I disclaim of all things Naruto related!

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The shaking of her hands was subtle, but very there as they hovered over all the blood-_the blood, so much, too_ _much_- and she could feel Jiraiya (1) next to her stiffen. One of her fingers caught on the leather thong of his necklace and Tsunade could feel the hysterical laughter bubbling up at the back of her throat. What was this, a curse? A thrice damned curse?

"…No. Y-you kn…know that's not true…" Half-lidded blue eyes gazed steadily at her and the firm grip on her wrist made her eyes burn and feel a surge of false hope. Tsunade gave her (friend, confidante, grand-child, son?) a trembling smile, "Yeah, you made it, didn't you Rokudaime-sama..."

A hacking cough and so much more blood, "You be-better…believe it."

Jiraiya grit his teeth and hissed, "Shut up you little wretch! Your gabbing's gonna send you to your grave all the faster!" He reached over and wiped at the blood dribbling from Naruto's mouth. Jiraiya gave Tsunade a furtive glance and winced at the shake of her head. "…Don't you dare leave us, you still have so much-"

Naruto waved a shaking hand, "No, no...I'm t-too fuu-ull..." Both of the Sannin flinched, Tsunade barely heard the mumbled 'No more...no more ramen Chouji' over her sob. Jiraiya shut his eyes and turned away, simply laying a hand on Tsunade's shoulder.

"...How much more time before...?"

-_he dies_. Tsunade felt the silent words echo through her chest and the disbelief was crawling up her back and over her shoulders. "About four hours, maybe six if I have a couple soldier pills." _No! Too young, too great, too filled with life to die! Not __now, not like this!_ The denials ricocheted off of each other and grew layers as she softly brushed back the damp, bright hair. She didn't look up when Jiraiya made a questioning noise in the back of his throat. "I don't know the technique...Uchiha used, but it's as if someone got a vacuum and sucked out Kyuubi's chakra from his system to the very last drop.

"He's been in a slight relapse since the battle and usually would have been fine by now, but his injuries...Everything is going into patching him up - only without the Kyuubi's chakra. That's the biggest problem."_ And I don't know how to stop it!_ "Whatever chakra I use to help him along get's absorbed but does nothing to heal him. His body is too used to the potent energy of the demon's for anything else to help."

Jiraiya let go of her shoulder and crossed his arms with a huff, "Yeah, eighteen years of the stuff will do that to anybody. But I don't think Kyuubi's chakra was sucked _out_, Minato's seal won't allow that, rather Madara sealed it further in..." He stared at the cave walls in silent deliberation. If Naruto was absorbing any source of available chakra...

He tapped the small marble in his coat pocket. '_Damned if I do, damned if I don't._'

Tsunade narrowed her eyes as she looked at the flash of determination appearing across Jiraiya's face. She grew distinctly wary as she saw him shuffle a hand through his red coat, "What are you planning?"

He simply gave a solemn smile as he showed her a tiny, black, marble about the size of her pinky nail that seemed to pulse. "I picked this up at a shrine a few years back, after that incident with four tails. Thought it would be useful at some point." Jiraiya scooted over to his student and proceeded to tear further at his bloody mesh shirt, mindful of the two large gashes on his chest, "Legend has it that this little thing can power-up anyone times ten, and with the 'pure' energies soaked in it, it'll give any demon a wake-up sucker punch."

Despite the time ticking away, Tsunade felt her curiosity and hope flicker to life, "What's it called?"

"Shikon, or some number, no Tama (2)," he flashed her a small grin before turning back to removing the shirt, "At least that's what I could read next to it's case."

Tsunade's eyes widened and she couldn't help the small quirk of her lips, "Futabei Jiraiya, Gamma Sennin of the Sannin, did you steal that jewel from a _shrine_?"

"Ah, more like borrowed." He leaned over and pat Naruto's cheek, "Hey, brat, wake up for a second will you? This is gonna probably, hopefully, save your life."

Tsunade scowled and slapped his hand away, "Are you saying you don't know if this will work?! Do you even know what you're doing?"

Jiraiya barred his teeth with his smile. "Well, this is the last thing we've got, right? Madara and his pet Akatsuki might be dead, but so is _everything_ else. There's no one but us to heal him, and neither of us are up to snuff either." She gave him a hard stare before biting her lip and leaning over and placing a hand on Naruto's shoulder.

"Naruto, c'mon, wake up. This is really important." His eyelashes flickered and scrunched his nose, turning his head a smidgen toward her direction. "Yeah, that's it Naruto..."

"I'll do this Tsunade, you've been healing him all this time." Tsunade moved to give Jiraiya room and he put his own hand on Naruto's shoulder while the one holding the jewel hovered over his chest, "Alright brat, can you feel this energy over you chest?" when Naruto gave a wet gurgle Jiraiya flinched and corrected, "Move your head to answer, your dumbass."

After a weak nod, Jiraiya sharpened his own senses, "Okay, gather what chakra you can toward that energy until you feel me put something on you."

The air in the small cave grew heavy and a shimmer of blue glowed around Naruto, starting to pulse in time with the jewel it was reaching toward. Jiraiya slowly lowered it until it touched flesh, vaguely noticing the small _tink_ as it touched the shiny necklace. _If only things didn't end up like this..._

Deep down in the water-logged sewers, one glowing eye opened and gleaming fangs snapped in glee. **Hur hur hur...If you don't like the end, you simply must start over again from the beginning****...Yes...**A flash of Tsunade's face screwed into an anxious expression. **Your words may be off, but it seems the female knows them intimately. Hur hur hur, go back indeed. **Kyuubi stood and flared his tails, cocking his head as his fangs barred in satisfaction at the black energy starting to swirl the water around him. His great maw opened and a roar shook the whole room, creating waves in the water.

Outside, the clear blue stone slowly turned black...

**_Yes, let's start over again._**

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Naruto immediately felt nausea upon gaining consciousness, and even with his eyes closed, he felt the room spinning around him. What the heck did the stupid pervert do? Pfft, the smartest thing to do would probably be to wait for Baa-chan to heal him up or something.

_'Jiraiya! Is he supposed to start absorbing the thing?' _

_'How would I know?! It should be fine-look, his wounds are starting to close up!'_

He started to slowly empty his mind with deep breaths and ignored the heavy pounding of his head, '_Gah, feels like five hundred clones popped!',_ as well as the soreness pulsing at his stomach and chest, '_Bastard, shoulda rammed another Rasengan up his_-', and tried to settle down more comfortably. Little by little, Naruto could feel the soft cotton of the bed covers beneath him, the slightly limp pillow, and smell the bleach-cleaness only hospitals could achieve. Beyond that, he could smell sickly sweet tobacco-_Shikamaru? He made it! Wait_-with the thin undertone of...ink?

_'...The necklace! Jiraiya, the necklace is starting to-'_

_'Shit! If only things didn't-Naruto! Naruto, stop! Stop expending chakra!'_

The pounding was growing louder and more painful. There was also a curious sense of burning in his throat that he usually could push back so easily. What was it about this scent...?

_'Naruto!'_

A flash of white and red, swirling smoke from an old pipe.

_'Naruto!'_

Warm and wrinkled, a hand patting his head, the smell of ramen drifting around them.

_'Na..u..o...!'_

It was starting to get hard to breath. It should be impossible to consider, but maybe...maybe Tsunade and Jiraiya had failed and he was in hea-

_**Hur hur hur...Go back indeed...**_

He sucked in a sharp breath when the same hand landed his forehead, rough with callouses from training and taking blood, but gentle with familiar care. Yeah, impossible. No way.

"Naruto-chan? Are you awake?"

_Chan?!_ Naruto's eyes snapped open to bright white and blurs of vivid colors. He ignored the tears stinging his eyes and stared at the, '_Ohmygod_', red and white hat, not daring to look any further down because for some reason his courage had disappeared and, and, _godammit_-!

Slowly, he took in the creased brow, sunken dark eyes, and thin lips pressed into a frown.

"Naruto?"

The tears were long coming. "...J-jii-chan?"

_**I wish...I could go back so this never happened...I wish...**_

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(1)Jiraiya: I love that pervert too much to allow him to stay dead! Um...After his fight with Pein, some wandering healer found him and to repent for all the wrong doings done in their life, did a Chiyo-sama! switcharoo? Yeah, that works.

(2) Shikon no Tama: Yeah, I jacked it from Inuyasha, but this story isn't going to be a crossover with the exception of this. The jewel acts the same way most fanfiction have it, y'know, the type that takes your wish and messes with it so the characters have to work all over again to get their happily-ever-after?

Hope you guys like it so far. Send me feedback please!

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